Leaf Piles
by TrimbyJean
Summary: One-shot. Rachel belatedly learns the joys of fall, thanks to her obnoxious boyfriend. It's established Puckleberry, post-Sectionals, and taking place before Sue Sylvester Shuffle.


Summary: Rachel belatedly learns the joys of fall, thanks to her obnoxious boyfriend. It's established Puckleberry, post-Sectionals, and taking place before Sue Sylvester Shuffle.

Inspiration: Something I did today.

A/N: I love fall! And reviews (just saying) =D

Rating: M, just because it's Puck. I've decided that Puck alone determines the rating, and his mere existence deserves a mature content warning ;)

DISCLAIMED

Rachel Berry stood in the middle of her front lawn, surrounded. There was nowhere to run or hide from them, and she was- quite frankly- horrified.

"How can one tree produce so many leaves?" She asked no one in particular, staring up at the huge oak tree beside her. It was quite large, and old, and had managed to shed most of its leaves all over the grass. Everywhere Rachel looked, there was a blanket of orange, red and brown. Her fathers had gone out for the weekend, and the only thing they'd asked her to do was rake the yard and put the leaves on the curb so that they could be collected. Theirs was the last house on the block to have leaves still on it, and as she looked at her neighbors' immaculately manicured lawns, she sighed. It would take forever to rid herself of all these leaves. One person and one rake simply couldn't handle them all. And, then, and idea struck.

~~~GLEE!~~~

Puck sat slumped on his couch, controller in hand and ready to do some damage. A huge bag of chips sat next to him, with his favorite dip close at hand and a two liter of soda at the ready. Chang and Rutherford were already online, and all they needed was Finn.

"Where's fuckin' Hudson?" Puck grumbled into the mic. "We're wasting precious killing time."

"Maybe he's forgotten how to turn on the system." Mike joked, and the guys laughed.

"I heard that." Finn's voice came over the headset, and a little icon in the corner of the screen let Puck know he was online. "That's seriously uncool guys, I'm not that stupid. I was busy helping my mom with something."

"Aw, Hudson's a mama's boy." Puck laughed, but he knew Finn wouldn't get offended. His best friend knew Puck was a mom's boy at heart, too. "Now, let's get fuckin' started."

Just then, his phone rang and he groaned. "Hold on, guys." He glanced at the number and saw it was Rachel. "Fuck… I told her not to call me today."

"Who, Rachel?" That was Matt. "You seriously told your girlfriend not to contact you?"

"We're gaming today. She knows the deal. Besides, I'm going over there for dinner tonight. Her dads are MIA all weekend, and we're gonna hang and shit." He didn't know what to do. The phone kept ringing, and he debated letting it go to voicemail.

"Answer it already, dude." Mike said. "You know Rachel. You don't answer and she'll think the worst."

Puck groaned but knew his friend was right. He flipped up the phone and put it to his ear. "Hey, babe, 'sup?"

"Hello, Noah. I know that you were playing video games all day with Mike, Matt, and Finn, but I find myself in need of some assistance." His girlfriend's chipper voice instantly made him smile, and he was suddenly okay with the interruption.

"Babe, you know I'm always willing to 'assist' you, but can't it wait until tonight?" He heard the guys snicker and flipped up his mic in annoyance.

"Noah, I don't mean like that." He could see her in his mind, all flustered and blushing adorably. "As you know, my fathers are out of town this weekend, and the only thing they asked me to do was rake the front yard so that the leaves can be collected. As you also know, our yard is quite large, and has that ridiculous tree in the middle of it. As you can imagine-"

"Rach, can you get to the point, please?" He practically begged.

She huffed but complied. "The leaves are everywhere, Noah! I didn't think it was possible for there to be so many leaves in one location, but they're all over the grass and I can't possibly rake them all myself. Please help me." She sounded desperate, and Puck wasn't sure if she was acting or not, but he did know he'd never hear the end of it from her if he didn't go help her out. She'd probably kill their dinner later, and that dinner was his ticket to some nookie with his girl. They hadn't had any time to hang out (make out) for a serious amount of time this week, and he'd been looking forward to tonight. He sighed but put the controller down and stood up.

"Yeah, babe. Gimme a few minutes." She squealed in delight and he smiled again, in spite of himself. He lived to make her happy.

"Thank you, Noah! I assure you, you will be aptly rewarded tonight. Thank you, thank you, thank you!" The phone clicked as she hung up, and Noah flipped the mic back down.

"I'm out, guys."

"Way to be whipped." Matt laughed.

"Hey, leave him alone." Finn replied. "Like you wouldn't pick your girlfriend over us any day."

"If you had a girlfriend." Mike added. "What's up with Berry, Puck?"

"Her fuckin' yard is being molested by leaves and she needs help raking them."

"Dude!" Finn exclaimed. "We'll come help!"

"What?"

"Seriously! Raking is the bomb!" Finn was acting like it was Christmas. "Rolling around in the leaves and messing around and crap. It's the best part of fall!"

Puck ignored his best friend further reinforcing the long-standing theory that he was basically a dumb dog. "Seriously? You're gonna come help me rake my girlfriend's yard? Instead of playing video games?"

"Sure." Mike said. "It is kinda fun goofing off and jumping in leaf piles. I'm in."

"Have fun with that, guys." Matt said. "I'll be here, if you get bored." They all said bye and signed off, and in about five minutes Puck, Finn and Mike were parked in front of Rachel's house, rakes in hand and jaws on the ground.

There wasn't a single visible piece of grass anywhere on her front lawn. The entire thing was blanketed in dead leaves, and Rachel was uselessly pushing them around, barely making a dent. She noticed them and smiled in relief. She jogged over to the trio and went on her toes to give Noah a kiss. He almost missed kissing her back, he was still in shock, but recovered as the smell of her strawberry shampoo hit him. "I brought the cavalry."

"I'm so glad you're all here. I don't understand how my fathers expected me to manage this by myself. It's like the leaves are superglued to the grass." She glanced back at the mess and sighed. "We'll be here a while."

"Maybe not." Finn said. He looked down at Rachel thoughtfully. "Do your dads have a leaf blower?"

Rachel shrugged. "They might. I wouldn't know what it looks like, but you're welcome to look in the garage." She waved a hand in the general direction of the structure, and Finn nodded.

"Why don't you guys start raking everything toward the sidewalk awhile?" He said. "I'll be right back." He jogged off toward the garage and left the three of them standing there. Mike shrugged and started raking, while Puck glared after his best friend. Rachel put a hand on his bicep.

"Noah, come rake with me. Let Finn play leader." She leaned up and smiled at him. "He may be the leader, but you got the girl." When he rolled his eyes and smiled, she knew she'd won. They began raking everything into a pile, pushing it toward the street, when Mike came out of nowhere, and landing in the huge pile like a goof. Rachel shrieked in surprise and Puck burst out laughing. Mike emerged from the pile covered in leaves, shaking his head like a dog and grinning.

"Mike Chang, what are you doing!" Rachel exclaimed.

"What, you've never jumped in a leaf pile?" Mike asked, looking at her like she had two heads. Rachel shook her head and Puck and Mike's eyes widened. "Seriously?"

"I can assure you that I've never indulged in that particular ritual, no."

"Well, it's about damn time you did." Puck said. Sometimes he seriously wondered what was wrong with Rachel, if she'd had a childhood at all. The one night she helped him babysit his sister, he learned that she'd never played Clue as a kid, and just about lost it. She'd informed him primly that the only board games she had played were Trivial Pursuit and music trivia games, as well as Monopoly. So, he'd sat her ass down and taught her Clue (after she took about an hour to pick a character).

"I'm not jumping in that." Rachel said, shaking her head. "There's bound to be bugs and other disgusting things in there. What if I land on a stick and hurt myself?"

"Chang came out fine." Puck answered. "Now get your cute little ass in the pile, babe."

"No, Noah."

"Yes, Rachel."

"No, Noah."

"Yes, Rachel."

"No, Mike." She shot a glare at the Asian.

"No, Rachel."

"_No_, Noah." We rolled her eyes at his childish, Looney Tunes-esque attempt at tricking her. "Can we please just finish raking?" Finn came out with a leaf blower at that moment, and Rachel ended the conversation by walking away from the two boys. Noah watched her leave, determined to get her.

"Hey, Chang." He beckoned his friend over. "I need you to distract Rachel."

"How?" The blower roared to life and Noah used it as cover to reveal his evil (genius) plan.

~~~GleeGleeGlee~~~

Rachel raked the leaves that Finn had blown to the edge of her lawn down to the side of the road, admitting to herself that his plan had merit. The work was going much faster now, and they would be finished in no time.

"Hey, Rach, look!" She looked up at the tree to see Mike balanced on one of the thicker branches, messing around by putting on leg up and pretending to wobble. She opened her mouth to tell him off, but a strong arm wrapped around her middle, the other covering her mouth. Then, Rachel was flying forward, landing on a soft bed of leaves. Sitting up, confused and annoyed, she saw Puck lying on his back next to her, laughing breathlessly. He looked up at her with a grin and reached out, plucking a leaf from her hair.

"Noah Puckerman, you are a jerk!" She exclaimed, shaking her head to dislodge any other leaves. "I said I didn't want to!"

"Aw, c'mon babe, wasn't it fun? Just a little bit?" He looked up at her hopefully, like a little kid who wanted confirmation that Santa Claus was indeed real (which he, of course, wasn't).

She sighed and remembered how exhilarating it had been, flying through the air with Noah's arm wrapped around her (she had known it was his arm, there really were none like it), not knowing what was going to happen, before landing on the cushion of the leaves with him beside her. "I suppose it was... kind of fun." She admitted, before smiling and laughing. "It was a lot of fun. Noah, can we do it again?" He helped her up and lifted her onto his back like he was giving her a piggy back ride.

"Hold on." He said, taking off at a run and jumping into the pile again, twisting his body so he landed on his back, her underneath him. She let out an oomph as the wind was knocked out of her, but still laughed.

"That's so much fun!" She shouted. Finn and Mike had made another huge pile on the other side of the lawn and were jumping into that one, climbing up to the lowest branch of the oak and doing flips and tricks. Noah sat up and wrapped his arms around her, picking twigs and leaves out of her hair and kissing her temple.

"Told you, baby. Maybe we can just goof off for the rest of the day and finish up raking tomorrow? Pick up's not til Monday anyway."

So, that's how they spent the rest of the day throwing leaves at each other and jumping into huge piles, laughing and going crazy. When no one could feel their faces anymore (it was kind of cold out) and the boys' stomachs rumbled, they all went inside and Rachel made cocoa for them while she cooked dinner. They watched random TV shows until Puck finally kicked his friends out, eager for some alone time with his girl.

They were curled up in her bed, under a warm blanket. She rested her chin on his chest and looked up at him through thick eyelashes, smiling. "Thank you for today, Noah. For helping and for forcing me to have fun." She kissed his chest and snuggled close, smelling like strawberry shampoo and girl. Puck put his arms around her and closed his eyes, totally content to just sleep instead of screw around (they could always do that in the morning).

**A/N: Yeah, it ended kind of abruptly, but I liked where it was. Maybe I'll come back to it and tweak it. Anyway, reviews are always loved, and I'll post something else soon!**


End file.
